Free Christmas Vocal Sheet Music "Gaudete"
Free Christmas vocal sheet music "Gaudete" with piano and guitar tabs, 3 versions, below. This beautiful Christmas carol is very old -- and very unusual.
I will not promise that your younger students will immediately like this song! However, old as it is (apparently 600-700 years old) it is very popular; a search at Sheetmusicplus yields 113 results! (2014)
The elegant rendition above by The King's Singers is totally outside the experience of a lot of pre-college students... but it shouldn't be!
Here is my version of the Christmas song. It is not a choral arrangement, but a single vocal line with a simple open-sounding accompaniment. The word "Gaudete" means "Rejoice!":
Scroll down the page for the links to the free printable PDFs of sheet music.
Here is a closeup of the page:
The English translation of the Latin text is not meant to be sung; it is more literal than poetic. I always like to know what I am singing. The words of this free Christmas vocal sheet music are truly beautiful.
The shifting rhythm is reflected in the changing time signatures; there is a version at IMSLP that does it all in 4/4 time, but it's good for students to wrestle with a shift from 2/4 to 6/8. Think of it as an opportunity!
There are so many fine versions of Gaudete at Youtube, that it was really hard to choose just one... so I didn't. Here is video number two, the very beautiful early music group Medieval Babes. Their singing starts at about 14 seconds (it's worth the wait!):
What first attracted me to this Christmas song was noticing how the shape of the medieval-sounding chords looked so easy to do on guitar... and I thought how nice this piece would sound with guitar and recorder or other treble instrument together.
Therefore, my first version of Gaudete was the arrangement below, for "classical'-style guitar and melody instrument:
Please scroll down the page for the download links.
The guitar part - for fingerpicking, of course - is not difficult. The hardest thing for the guitar player will be coordinating with the melody instrument.
Therefore, I also wrote up sheet music that has a tablature line for the melody, so guitarists who don't yet read standard notation can figure out how the melody is supposed to sound:
Please scroll down the page for the download links.
This version has two pages...
Please scroll down the page for the download links.
And here is a closeup of this file:
Try this piece at your next Christmas (or any) recital - it will really break the routine and inject a fresh sound into your students' repertoire!
One more video... Okay, two more! First, The Bedford Family Ringers & MYKL, an all-instrumental version of Gaudete:
And lastly, "Celtic Christmas," at a very lively pace. Wait for the deep organ drone about halfway through, then the addition of bright harp chords. This version is anything but static:
The vocal link:
Download free Christmas vocal sheet music "Gaudete"
The guitar links:
Download guitar tablature with early Renaissance melody line Gaudete
Download Gaudete guitar chords and guitar melody tabs
Recent Articles
-
O Susanna Easy Piano & Guitar Sheet Music
O Susanna is a song from the olden days of gold panning, and it's still fun to sing and play! Get the sheet music for beginning piano, and easy tabs for guitar here.
-
Toccata by Monteverdi for Piano Trio, or Piano Ensemble
Toccata, from an opera: vigorous & bright trio and ensemble arrangements with lots of rhythm - surprisingly EASY & FUN! With many rehearsal suggestions.
-
Classical Piano Sheet Music - a Collection of Short Introductions
Classical piano sheet music collection - easy one-page introductions for note-writing practice & gaining familiarity with the literature!
-
Should I Even Bother Trying to Re-Learn Piano, Or Is It a Waste of Time?
Comments or Questions: I was just reading about autism and music. I am recovering from a subarachnoid hemmorhage (bleeding in the brain) that ended up
-
Skye Boat Song Vocal & Guitar Sheet Music
"Skye Boat Song" from Scotland, with a lovely NEW finger-picking version for guitar, as well as the 2 original EASY arrangements!
-
Just the Black Keys, for the Younger Pianist
"Just the Black Keys" is a new piano book for young beginners who need more time with simple music. Make that simple music FUN!
A perfect read aloud storybook
for little boys or girls.
The Adventures of Tonsta highlight the travels of a very young boy with a good heart, who goes about helping folk in trouble.
With a red cap on his head and a sack of tools slung over his shoulder, Tonsta seems to meet people in distress wherever he goes.
Lots of trolls in this book - including one who gives him a Christmas gift!
Sign up for "Take Note!" to see what's new every month.
About the Author
Hi, I'm Dana! (Say that like "Anna".) I'm the owner of Music-for-Music-Teachers.com.
Like some of you, I've been playing the piano since early childhood, and added a few other instruments along the way, plus an interest in arranging and composing music.
You can find out more about me and the reason for this website at my About Me page.
